Feedstock particle size distribution and water content dynamic in a pellet mill production process and comparative sieving performance of horizontal 3.15-mm mesh and 3.15-mm hole sieves

Autor: Christian Sauer, Sebastian Paczkowski, Marius Wöhler, Marta Paczkowska, Anja Anetzberger, Stefan Pelz, Michael Russ
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery. 11:1621-1632
ISSN: 2190-6823
2190-6815
DOI: 10.1007/s13399-019-00544-9
Popis: Pellet feedstock particle size distribution is the main factor affecting pellet quality. Feedstock samples were obtained from different places in the production process of a commercial pellet mill. Particle size distribution and water content of the sieved particle fractions were analyzed. The results showed an alternation of particle size distribution and water content of the feedstock induced by the processing in the mill. Storage had a balancing effect on the water content distribution between the different particle size classes. Further experiments evaluated the reason for the underrepresentation of the 2.8–3.15-mm fraction in the feedstock. It was found that the major sieving factor for non-spherical wood particles was their width rather than their length, though the aspect ratio was important for the sorting between the 2.8–3.15-mm and the 2.0–2.8-mm sieve fractions. The significant differences between the particle width in the sieve fractions and the distribution of the particle aspect ratio improved when using a 3.15-mm mesh sieve instead of the 3.15-mm hole sieve. This indicates the better sieving performance of the 3.15-mm mesh sieve, which should be considered by pellet manufacturers and researchers investigating pellet feedstock.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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